Lionel 464 Sawmill Remake

This may not be a "Lionel approved" solution, but it worked for me. I sanded a small amount of wood off the ends of each log, then slightly tapered both ends of the logs. That adjustment improved the "flow" of logs through the sawmill.

Mike Mottler   (ritrainguy)

Dan,

This sounds like  an overly simple suggestion but trying tweaking the voltage...up. I have the sawmill remake and my logs were hanging up. Bumped up voltage a tad and all was well.

John, guess what, you're right on.  Thanks.  I tested it with my 1033 transformer on the bench.  The throttle was almost all the way up to 16 volts, if you can count on the numbers being correct.  Tonight I'll place it back on the layout and hook it up to the ZW.

Good to hear.  A cool accessory.

I wonder how many other Lionel accessories might benefit from a big more voltage?

I have a Lionel gateman that hung up too. Gave it 16 volts and it works fine.

I had a similar problem with the 6-2301 sawmill. I purchased a new in box unit for our train club for visitors to use. Unwrapped the unit loaded the logs and boards and it bound up right away. After playing with the unit I found the first in board was slightly warped preventing the belt from moving the board through the mill.  I sanded the board down to remove some of it's belly and now the unit works like a champ. The sawmill is a big hit even with our jaded senior members from the N and HO groups. The visitors are going to love this accessory! 

I received the #6-24147 version a couple of days ago, from an Ebay seller.  It is a bit disappointing as far as operation is concerned.  It had some issues that the seller made good on however.  

There is no sound other than the faint sound of the can motor.  It relies on an O ring used as a drive belt to move the belt.  An extra O ring was in the box.  To make the saw blade move, requires two belts, not included in the accessory.  I temporarily fitted two rubber bands to the two sets of pulleys and the blade turns sporadically.  The wiring for the red strobe lights fouled on the drive mechanism.  

I think I may stick with the 2301 version that I was going to sell and use the newer one for, I'm not sure what, at this point.  

We just setup a new spur with 1 bus line using a variable transformer. We would like to operate the following equipment: 2 MTH lit buildings, a Lionel 6-2301 sawmill with log dump car, a Lionel 362 barrel loader and barrel car, and a Lionel 397 coal loader. The problem is supplying optimum voltage for each accessory usually between 10v - 12v without having multiple power supplies for the different voltages. My question is, could we use separate trim pots for each of the accessories all running off of one 16v bus line?  Would work and if so, what rated trim pots would be needed?  Is there a better way to do this?

Thanks for any all help.

Bob C 

Of the Grand Strand Model RR Club of Myrtle Beach SC.